A St Andrews winter wedding by the sea

Fur stoles on West Sands, a whisky bar in the marquee, and snow on the day.

Snow was not in the forecast for Kirsty and Andrew's December wedding on West Sands, and then, an hour before the ceremony, it was falling steadily over the beach where St Andrews' students famously run every May. 'Our photographer just started laughing,' Kirsty says. 'She said in twelve years she'd never had snow on a Fife beach wedding.'

The ceremony itself took place indoors, at a hotel overlooking the Old Course, with the couple stepping out afterwards in fur stoles borrowed from Kirsty's grandmother for a fifteen-minute session of photographs on the sand before everyone's feet went numb.

Why winter, and why the coast

Andrew proposed on West Sands the previous December, so a winter wedding by the same beach was never really up for debate. Fife in December brings roughly seven hours of daylight, brutal winds off the North Sea, and hotel rates considerably lower than the summer scramble — the couple's venue cost around 30% less than its June rate for the same package.

December and January are the cheapest months to marry in Fife's coastal venues, often 20–35% below peak summer pricing
Daylight in St Andrews in December runs roughly 8.40am to 3.40pm — plan photography around the middle of the day
Book a backup indoor space for any outdoor ceremony plans; coastal winter weather in Fife is genuinely unpredictable

Inside the marquee

Rather than heat lamps alone, the couple's marquee company installed a proper whisky bar along one wall, stocked with Fife-distilled options including a Kingsbarns single malt, and guests were handed hot toddies on arrival rather than standard fizz. It became, by most accounts, the most popular corner of the entire reception.

The tables were dressed in deep forest green and burgundy, thick pillar candles doing most of the lighting work once the sun dropped at half past three, and every place setting included a small tartan hip flask as a favour, filled by the couple themselves the night before.

Managing a winter wedding day

Brief your photographer to prioritise the golden hour window, which in a Scottish December can last only 20 minutes
Provide blankets, stoles or ponchos for any outdoor portraits — hire companies in Fife now stock tartan wedding wraps specifically for this
Warn guests travelling from further afield about road conditions on the A91 and A92, which can close in heavy snow
Keep a hot drinks station running throughout the drinks reception, not just at arrival

The day itself

Despite the cold, nobody left early. The ceilidh band kept the hall moving until half past midnight, and several guests admitted afterwards that the snow had made the whole day feel more like an event than a compromise. Kirsty's grandmother's fur stoles, incidentally, have since been requested by two cousins for their own winter weddings.

For couples weighing up a summer date against a winter one on the Fife coast, Kirsty's advice is straightforward: 'Everyone said we were brave getting married on a beach in December. But it's the thing people still talk about, a year on. Nobody remembers if a June wedding was warm.'